….Canadiens centre Jonathan Drouin will miss his fourth consecutive game and second because of a virus.

….Jakub Jerabek replaces Victor Mete on the third defense pairing.

….Calgary RW Jaromir Jagr will be gametime decisions.

….LW Matthew Tkaczuk suspended one game for spearing incident in Toronto.

–

Head-to-Head –

….The Canadiens have lost 22 of the last 30 meetings with the Flames.

….Over the last 21 games in the series the home team has won 15 times.

….Since the lockout the Flames and Canadiens have met eight times. The Canadiens are 4-4-0 in those games including 2-2-0 at the Bell Centre.

….Since the 2009-10 season the Flames are 4-2-1 at the Bell Centre.

….David Rittich will the the ninth different Calgary goaltender to face the Canadiens in the In the last ten games including Miikka Kiprusoff, Joey MacDonald,Reto Berra, Jonas Hiller,Joni Ortio,Niklas Backstrom, Brian Elliot and Chad Johnson.

….In 15 games vs. the Flames Max Pacioretty has 3 goals, 3 assists and is minus-9.

–

About the Canadiens –

….Over their last seven games the Canadiens have a 5-1-1 record. Since November 4th the Canadiens are 9-5-2 and since their 1-6-1 season start they five games over .500 at 12-7-2.

….Over the last 15 games Canadiens penalty killers have allowed 7 goals on 46 times shorthanded – and 84.7% success rate. Through the season’s first 14 games the Canadiens successfully killed only 71.4% of opposition penalties (14/47) and were ranked 29th in the league. Canadiens penalty killers now rank 20th.

….Carey Price will make his 7th consecutive start . In his six starts since returning from injury Price is 5-1-0 with a 1.66GAA and .946 save%.

….Max Pacioretty has one goal in his last 11 games and eight in 29 games this season. After 29 games last season Pacioretty had ten goals including a four goal night against Colorado (0.34 average per game). In his final 53 games he scored 25 (0.47 per game.)

….In the three games since his recall from Laval Daniel Carr has 1 goal, 4 assists in 34:43 icetime.

….Shea Weber has three points in the two games since he returned from the injury list (2g, 1a).

….Tomas Plekanec has five points in his last five games – all assists.

….Andrew Shaw, whose two faceoff wins led directly to goals by Weber Tuesday, leads the Canadiens in faceoff win % at 55.5% (91/164). Tomas Plekanec is second at 53.5% (273/510) and Phillip Danault at 53.2%. (219/412).

….Jordie Benn has scored goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his career and has now equaled his personal best of 4 in a season, set last season in 71 games.

….Paul Byron played in 130 games over four seasons for Calgary with 16 goals (0.12 per game). In 172 games with the Canadiens he has 42 goals (0.24 per game)

….Jeff Petry needs two assists to reach a career 100.

–

About the Flames –

….This is the Flames second game in 24 hours and their third in four nights. They lost at home to Philadelphia 5-2 Monday and were edged 2-1 in a shootout at Toronto Wednesday.

….The Flames have won only 7 of their last 22 second games of back-to-back.

….The Flames have earned at least a point in five of their last six games on the road (3-2-1).

….Against Toronto the Flames recorded a season-high 48 shots on goal.

….This is the fourth set of back-to-back games for the Flames. They have split the other three and have won two of the three ‘second games’.

….Calgary has won only two of it’s last eight games (2-4-2). In the eight game stretch they have given up 26 goals, an average of 3.2 per game.

….Johnny Gaudreau is third in the NHL scoring race with 36 points in 27 games (12g, 24a). Only Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov (40) and Stephen Stamkos (38) are ahead of him. Gaudreau has points in only one of his last 6 games (1g, 1a).

…Gaudreau has points on 45.5% of the Flames goals this season (36 pts. on 79 goals) the highest percentage in the league.

….Sam Bennett has 2 goals, 4 assists over his last five games.

….Five of SeanMonahan‘s team leading 15 goals have been game-winners. Last season he totaled seven.

….Micheal Ferland played in his 200th career game Wednesday in Toronto, Curtis Lazar will play his 200th vs. the Canadiens.

….Calgary has killed off 12 of the last 13 penalties over the last five gmes and 25 of 28 over the last ten (89.2%).

….Mike Smith will reach 500 career games in his next appearance.

–

Goaltending –

….Carey Price is 8-8-1 in 17 appearances this season with a .903 save% and 3.00GAA.

….Career vs. the Flames Price has a 4-5-0 record with a 2.76GAA and a .909 save%.

–

….David Rittich has been in two Calgary games with a 1-1-0 with a 3.04GAA and .875 save%.

….Rittich was recalled from Stockton/AHL on Nov. 24th at the same time as Eddie Lack was re-assigned.

….Mike Smith has a career 4-2-4 record vs. the Canadiens with a 2.32GAA and a .926save%.